The invention is applicable for example to manufacture of composite components which exhibit a base body or carrier made of a fiber composite mat, onto which are molded functional parts made of plastic such as ribs, holder elements, reinforcing elements or attachment elements. Such composite components are used for example in automotive technology as interior paneling parts. The composite components are produced in special compression-injection molding tools, in which first the fiber composite mat is pressed in the form and compressed, and then the functional parts made of plastic are molded on. Before the deformation of the fiber composite mat, these must be brought to a defined operational temperature. In prior art it is known for this to use separate heating presses with contact heating or infrared heating. One advantage of contact heating is that therein the fiber composite mat can attain a certain preliminary compression.
Naturally the invention is also applicable to other kinds of composite parts which exhibit shaped plates made of other materials, for example plastic plates with no share of fiber, plates with a sandwich structure, etc. Additionally the invention is also applicable to composite parts onto which the plastic functional parts are shaped in another way, such as through foaming, casting or the like.
DE 10 2004 054 228 A1 describes a method and a device for manufacturing a shaped part from a natural fiber mat, with plastic functional parts shaped on. According to the method, first the plate blank containing natural fibers is heated; then the shaped part is shaped from the blank by pressing, and a plastic melt is molded onto the shaped part, to form the functional parts. For this a cavity is formed on the shaped part before the molding. A similar method is described in EP 1 986 835 B1.
Another similar method, in which a plate made of thermoplastic material is used, is described in EP 1 153 725 B1. EP 1 495 850 B1 likewise describes a method and a device for manufacturing a composite component based on a plate made of thermoplastic material, wherein according to this method the plate is pre-heated in the shaping tool itself, before plastic functional parts are molded on.
Additional examples of texts which describe the manufacture of composite components based on fiber mats with plastic functional parts molded on, are DE 10 2010 052 180 A1, DE 10 2011 014 538 B3 and DE 10 2011 054 152 A1.
One multi-platen press for heating of shaped parts or shaped part blanks, which then can be further processed in the above-described press-injection molding tool is described for example in EP 1 970 192 A1.
One drawback of the prior art is that between the heating unit for heating the plate blank and the press-composite molding tool, often relatively long paths must be traversed by appropriate transfer devices. Due to this, not only does significant expense arise for providing the transfer device, but also this involves a danger that during the transport the pre-heated plate blanks cool down and then no longer have the requisite temperature in the press-injection molding tool. True, this could be counteracted by having the plate blanks preheated to a higher temperature, but naturally this requires greater expenditure of energy, and, depending on the material of the plate blank, it could also lead to impairment of material quality. Also, the heater plates of the heating press between which the plate blank comes to lie, and the shaped parts of the composite molding tool, cannot be made to adjoin each other as closely as desired, because each tool itself requires a certain amount of space and must be accessible for operation and maintenance.
The object of the invention is to provide a device and a method for manufacturing a composite part which exhibits a shaped plate and at least one plastic functional part molded onto the shaped plate, by which the drawbacks described above can be overcome.
This problem is solved by a device according to patent claim 1 and a method according to patent claim 8. Preferred embodiments of the invention are indicated in the dependent claims.